UT’s College of Education Assessments Summer Self-Study Projects

The summer semester provides a wonderful opportunity to review some of our procedures and implement changes for the following academic year as needed. This summer (2005), three major projects are underway:

1. EAS Phase II
2. A Review of Field Experiences data collection methods and data entry
3. Licensure and non-licensure critical performances.
4. Additional information can be found in the minutes for these meetings.

EAS Phase II Enhancements

Introduction

The College of Education (COE) at the University of Toledo (UT) received a from the Ohio Department of Education’s Center for the Teaching Profession, in the amount of  $15,000, to assist with the underwriting of enhancements to the University’s Electronic Assessment System. The requested funds are for the period April 2005 through September 2005, under Stand 4.

The Current System

The College of Education spearheaded the development of the Electronic Assessment System (EAS) for University-wide assessment purposes. EAS is a web-based system allows for the submission, evaluation, and review of student documents which facilitates the tracking of student progress. This system enables the professional education unit to manage data gathered from assessments from both internal and external sources (i.e., applicants, candidates, recent graduates, faculty and other members of the professional community) by storing the actual candidate work (i.e., undergraduate and graduate) along with the reviewer’s scores and his or her comments. 

Following acceptance into professional education, the College of Education has developed a set of Critical Performances (CPs) that all candidates must successfully complete. These Critical Performances were identified as the major tasks that are necessary for success in the classroom. Proficiency is demonstrated by submission of an artifact that is scored on a three-point rubric (i.e., Unsatisfactory, Proficient, and Distinguished). The Critical Performances are:

1.      Community/School Context

2.      Lesson Plan

3.      Videotaped Lesson with Reflection

4.      Assessment of Student Learning

5.      Learner Differences

6.      Analysis of Teaching and Professional Growth

7.      Understanding Development

8.      Unit Plan

Artifacts for each Critical Performance may vary by program area as this relates to grade level and content area. However all artifacts provide clear evidence of the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the standards. Based on the assessment scores of student performance on CPs, EAS provides regular and comprehensive information on applicant qualifications, candidate proficiencies, competence of graduates, unit operations, and program quality. 

In the two years since its initial implementation, a number of professional education faculty have consistently used EAS for their course assessments. This period also provided the opportunity to identify enhancements that will improve EAS’ utility and usability, thus leading to wider adoption throughout the College and University.  

EAS Year One Enhancements

The successful development and implementation of the EAS system lends support for wider diffusion and adoption within the College of Education and throughout the University. During the initial phase of development and adoption, several enhancements that will increase the utility and usability of this system have been identified. It is the COE’s goal to implement these enhancements prior to the fall 2005 semester in furtherance of the goal of wider adoption especially for assessment-related (CPs) student assessment.

The following enhancements are in progress:

1.      improvement to the EAS Faculty user interface to improve usability and utility

2.      improvements to the EAS student interface to improve usability and utility

3.      improved integration with other non-EAS databases, including the Student Information System (SIS), Field Experiences, and PRAXIS

4.      the creation and implementation of user-training

It is believed that these enhancements will:

• create a better system that: 
  • links assessments to standards
  • links assignments to standards
  • improves the implementation of assessment metrics such as rubrics that will more accurately and effectively describe and assess student performance
  • formatively makes assessments available to students registered in assessment courses (courses linked to the accreditation process and tied to critical performances)
  • facilitates modeling of exemplary practice by making examples available to students
• facilitate increased use of assessment data for formative and summative evaluation at the course, program,, department, and College levels

Review of Field Experiences data collection methods and data entry

This project is being done in cooperation with the Office of Field Experiences and has two general goals.

Firstly, this provides an opportunity to review survey data collection procedures and to implement improvements. The generally objectives are to:

• improve the quality of observation forms
• include the assessment of dispositions in the new observation forms
• implement a revised cooperating teacher survey
• implement a revised field supervisor survey
• implement a revised early career teacher survey
• implement a revised student exit survey
• implement a revised graduate student survey
• implement a field experience survey data collection process that is standard across all programs.

The second aspect of this effort focuses on compiling an initial report of our students’ field experiences over the last six academic years. The Field Office has faithfully collected paper-based student exit surveys for at least six years. These exit surveys gives teacher candidates the opportunity to provide feedback on the quality of different aspects of their placement experience. In order to compile this report all paper-based data will have to be digitized and this is currently in progress. Upon completion, an initial report will be written. Based on these initial findings, other questions related to our students’ field experiences will be investigated.